The Ruffian's Misfortune

71-year-old Texan Ray Wylie Hubbard has been hovering around the fringes of the music business for a good five decades. He's written songs covered by the likes of Jerry Jeff Walker and Ringo Starr, gained the respect and admiration of fellow musicians, and has recorded albums regularly since 1975.

 

Commercial success, though, has eluded him. Not because he isn't good--he's immensely talented--but probably because his music defies categorization. The Ruffian's Misfortune, released in 2015, is a compendium of styles. There's the gutbucket slide guitar blues of album opener "All Loose Things," the gentle acoustic folk of "Too Young Ripe, Too Young Rotten," and the all-out garage rock raver ""Chick Singer, Badass Rockin." and that's just a start. All of these songs, though, have two things in common: Hubbard's intelligent insight into everyday life and his omnipresent sense of humor.

 

RWH (as his fans tend to refer to him) has had a big artistic winning streak the last decade or so. Joined by his guitar-playing young son Lucas (who contributes smoking slide and lead guitar on The Ruffian's Misfortune), Hubbard plays and sings with urgency and enthusiasm, proving that there are indeed second acts in life.